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Justine McCarthy: How can we be objective if we take junkets too?

I once had a colleague who was held in fond regard by his peers, though I have never fathomed if this was because he was the champion freeloader of the Fourth Estate, or despite it. One year, he organised his summer holiday so painstakingly that his sojourn in France cost nothing. He and his companion got the train (free of charge) from Dublin to Rosslare, where they boarded a ferry (free of charge), then took a TGV (free of charge) to the Languedoc, where they stayed in a gîte (free of charge) while availing themselves of a hire car (free of charge), and made the return journey a fortnight later - free of charge. He was not at all shy about keeping the rest of us abreast of these debt-defying logistics.

Watching John O'Donoghue's (pictured above) sinecure of privilege crumble under the media microscope last week brought back memories of my